. >> a house aide said president obama and house speaker john boehner spoke on3 the phone yesterday afternoon, their first conversation a week and since republicans offered $800 billion in new tax revenue and more than a trillion dollars in spending cuts, republicans say they're still waiting on a counter offer from the white house. lori: i wonder if they're talking football. >> it got messy. melissa: the house may be sending the members home t for e president seems to think if they got down to business, it is an easy fix. melissa: we can probably solve this in about a week. melissa: piece of cake. he thinks it is too late to get anything done before the end of the year as both sides are too far apart on key issues. joining us now, financial economist at jefferies. we think it is too late, we're going over the cliff. how come? >> not enough time to address all the issues that need to be addressed. especially they will talk o on a phone only once per week. it has been some progress on the tax cut side in terms of tax reform that could raise a type of revenue that we are going to need, but as f